Florida launch site for rockets debated

Sunday

Dec 29, 2013 at 12:01 AMDec 29, 2013 at 12:23 PM

ORLANDO, Fla. - A public-private agency's plan to build a state-run launch complex on the environmentally sensitive fringe of Kennedy Space Center is ready for its federal and public vetting over possible environmental effects.

ORLANDO, Fla. — A public-private agency’s plan to build a state-run launch complex on the environmentally sensitive fringe of Kennedy Space Center is ready for its federal and public vetting over possible environmental effects.

At stake is Florida’s plan for a new launch complex marketed to private rocket companies, weighed against environmentalists’ hopes that the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge will be forever protected.

Space Florida wants to carve out about 200 acres and build two rocket-launch complexes on 60 of those acres. The property is owned by NASA but managed as part of the wildlife refuge.

Space Florida expects a new launch center could be largely free of much of the federal red tape and the competing national priorities that can bog down private launches from the nearby space center or from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch complex. The site also is close enough to the old space-shuttle landing strip, which Space Florida also is seeking to acquire, that it thinks companies could use them together.

People and groups may weigh in until Feb. 21.

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